Lake Wales, FL – Jan 2022

This picture pretty much represents the chilly weather us Floridians have experienced through much of the latter weeks of Jan.  In fact, a once in a decade cold front is heading our way as I write this, with temps projected to dip to the upper 20’s on Sunday morning.  Brrrrr!  This is not what I signed up for!  Good news is, it will warm up quickly and get back to normal 70s and 80s by midweek.

Sightseeing

I did a bit of traveling and sightseeing this month.  First up was a day trip to Tampa to check out the Florida RV SuperShow – known to be one of the two largest RV shows in the country (the other one being the Hershey, PA show that I attended annually for decades when I lived in the area).  This is the second time I’ve been to this show, and it didn’t disappoint.  I went on Thu which was their second day of being open, to avoid the usual weekend crowds.  It was still kinda busy with a reported 17,000 people in attendance.  Overall, there were over 80,000 people that showed up over the 5-day event – breaking the prior record of 74,000 set in pre-pandemic 2019.  It’s clear folks wanted and needed to get out of the house, and back to some level of normalcy.  Overall, it was a great show, with over 30 dealers and manufacturers represented, and upwards of 45 vendor booths in two separate buildings.  I honestly did not spend too much time looking at RVs, but rather focused on the collection of “Park Models” that were featured in the show (as shown at left, top).  When I decide to give up the nomadic life, I will sell my big truck and RV, and put a Park Model RV on my lot in central Florida for final retirement living.  Park model RVs are more like homes than RVs, having a regular bathroom, conventional home style appliances, and standard home heat and AC systems.  They are designed to be built, purchased, and placed on a lot for more or less permanent living.  Though I’m certainly not ready to give up RV travel, it was nice to start seeing the kind of living accommodations I’ll have when I do decide to get off the road.  It’s gonna be awesome!  If you want to take a closer look, go HERE.

I got to spend some time with my 4 other brothers, all who happen to be here in FL for the winter.  This included a multi-day trip to my brother Don’s place in the Ft Pierce area.  While there, my sister-in-law Deb and I spent a cool morning checking out some of the local Roadside America sites.  A few of these items included some metal sculptures that were located in downtown Fort Pierce in the area of the River Walk Center, AE Backus Museum, and the Manatee Observation and Education Center.  First up was a scrap metal folk art recycle Ft Pierce welcome sign. It stands about 10 feet tall and made up of old license plates, various tools and automotive parts, and even a golf club.  Pretty cool!  Also in this little waterside park were scrap metal statues of a horse and Indian.  Not a lot of info of their history, but were certainly nicely crafted.

To me, the highlight of the morning was a visit to the bronze statue of CeeCee Ross Lyles. She was a flight attendant on United Airlines Flight 93, the one that crashed in Pennsylvania on 9/11.  Although she lived in Ft Myers when she died, she grew up in Fort Pierce and was a police officer there for six years.  She switched careers only ten months before her untimely death.  With four children under her care, she reportedly wanted a less dangerous profession.  Who knew!  She is also known for her phone calls with her husband from the doomed flight, describing the intent of the passengers to retake the plane.  Such a tragic loss.  Her life-size statue shows her wearing her UA uniform, as she peacefully looks out over the Intracoastal Waterway; a pretty, peaceful, and solemn spot.

In mid Jan, I had the opportunity to visit a nearby community known as Indian Lake Estates.  I subscribe to various Lake Wales community Facebook groups so that I can stay up to date with news and events.  In one group, there was a post looking for someone who lived in the area to visit a property and take various pictures of it.  They even paid $25 for the trouble. Being a retired guy, I figured this would be an interesting way to spend an otherwise uneventful afternoon.  So, I responded to the posting and got the gig.  Turns out, the property in question was located in Indian Lake – a large community that was only 10 miles up the road from me, and a place that I had on my list to visit one day.  So, killing multiple birds in one shot,  I hopped on my scoot, camera/phone in hand, and headed out.  The 12 square mile tract of land, along the shores of Lake Walk-in-Water, was purchased in 1955 for $222,000 – or roughly $35 per acre.  The developer envisioned an exclusive gated community of 15,000 residents, complete with golf course, country club, marina, and pier into the lake.  They spent millions building a network of canals near the lake, a quarter-mile pier, and 200 miles of roads and infrastructure throughout the development – of which only 98 miles are paved.  Prices for half-acre lots started at $2,250.  However, most of the buyers of plots were land speculators and only about 150 homes were built in the initial years.  By 1959, financial problems seemed imminent and the following year the developer sold their interest in the community.  Sadly, it ultimately went bankrupt in 1965.  As of today, there are only about 700 homes, mostly near the lake or golf course, in the community’s overall 8,000 lot capacity.  I saw road after road of nothing but vacant land, a boarded up restaurant, and community entrance fountains that are in desperate need of repair.  Maybe someday this community will live up to the vision, but for now, it seems mostly a community of cheap and plentiful vacant for sale lots – including the lot owned by the guy who paid me $25 to take pictures of theirs.

Local Happenings

As noted above, the latter part of Jan was spent dealing with lower than normal temps – including dealing with near 10 year record lows.  As a full-time RV traveller, my goal is to chase 70 degrees wherever I am.  That generally translates to being in the northern part of the country in the summer, and down in the south in the winter.  While this cycle of north and south travel usually works well, the past few weeks of unseasonably cold FL weather has proven otherwise.  I also thought I’d share a local Florida phenomenon with my northerly readers.  That is, falling iguanas when it gets cold.  While that may sound crazy, it is an actual thing here in FL.  Iguanas are naturally cold blooded, and don’t do well when temps get to 40 degrees or lower.  In fact, when it gets below 40, their breathing and metabolism slows considerably and they become cold stunned.  Since they spend a lot of time in trees, this incapacitating state causes them to fall out of the trees.  Hence, when it gets real cold here, it rains iguanas!  Think I’m making this up?  Here is a corroborating newscast from last year when we had a cold snap.  (HERE).

I got a new bed!  As I near the 4 year mark of living in the RV (wow – that’s a long time), I finally decided to upgrade my mattress.  The ones that come stock with most (all?) RV purchases are notorious for being thin, hard, and uncomfortable.  Mine was no exception.  So to get by, I added three inches of memory foam, and a two inch pillow top.  For the most part, this provided a suitable sleeping arrangement.  But I guess as I’ve gotten older, I found this setup no longer meeting my comfort needs.  So I invested in a quality, purpose RV built mattress.  Like most mattresses today, it arrived squished in a box, and expanded to full form after removing the plastic covering.  Despite the overall better comfort of this mattress, I returned the three inch foam, and added a new two inch pillow top, making for an ultimate sleeping platform.  So far, the only downsize of this new arrangement is that it added several inches to the overall hight, making it almost necessary to use a ladder to climb in.  Also, this new mattress weighs significantly more than the old, also making for a more difficult access to the under bed storage.  Fortunately, I don’t go there often, so this should not be too much of a problem.  But I may need to get that ladder!

The Jan/Feb season in this area brings about the harvesting of local oranges.  It is quite the operation to clear the thousands of acres of orange groves throughout Polk county.  It generally involves bussing in day laborers, and providing each with a sack and a ladder, and sending them into the fields to manually pick the oranges from the trees.  As their sacks fill, they transfer the contents into containers that are strategically distributed throughout the groves.  When those containers are filled, they are taken out with tractors to the road where their contents are dumped into a full sized tractor trailer container.  From there, the oranges are transported to one of several processing plants where the juice will be extracted, and the solids transformed into functional foods and other biodegradable products.  This is a principle industry here in central Florida.  In fact, my little town of Lake Wales is home and headquarters to Florida’s Natural brand of juices and other products.

Friends & Family

Early in the month I had the pleasure of having lunch with my cousin Louise in Palm Bay (at right, bottom).  I was in the area in the morning meeting with a realtor to do a walk thru of a property for sale.  It wasn’t for me, but rather for a friend who is looking to relocate down here to FL.  There was some interest in this particular property so I did a walk thru while simultaneously doing a live face-time video conference with them.  It was a good way to virtually view the place in detail.  After the home visit, I met up with my cousin and we shared a wonderful lunch.  It was great to see her again.  Also having spent several days with all my brothers at my brother Don’s place, we had the opportunity to get together for several meals.  One night we enjoyed a terrific dinner at a Portuguese  restaurant (at right, center), before attending a comedy show by famed Maine comedian Bob Marley.  It was a great show by a very funny comedian.  We also had several dinners at Don’s place, including Salmon Pie and Beef Balls and Noodles.  These are dinners our mother used to cook for us as kids growing up.  Nice that we can still enjoy these family favorites after all these years.  Thanks to master chef Don for keeping these recipes alive.

For entertainment at my brothers house, I brought along a new toy that Santa brought to me for Christmas.  An Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality headset provided lots of comic relief one evening.  My brother Dick attempted Archie’s Plank, which entails taking an elevator up to the top of a 60+ story building, then walking out onto a virtual 6″ wide board that hovers high above the busy urban street below.  Like me, he was not very successful in convincing his brain to take the walk out on the plank.  It truly is terrifying and despite the physical fact that you are still in the middle of the living room, your mind is convinced otherwise.  Brother Don did much better and defied any fear of heights and successfully walked the plank to the end.  However, after convincing him to hop off the end, his virtual free fall to the ground resulted in him actually falling to the ground.  Amazing what the brain is capable of being fooled into believing.  Brother Dave and sister-in-law Deb, being roller coaster fans, enjoyed riding several virtual coasters.  Complete with weee’s and wow’s, their virtual rides were equally realistic and adventurous.  Lastly, several of us enjoyed some virtual Top Golf, hitting a much straighter virtual ball than in actual reality.  I guess one of the benefits of a video game version.  It was lots of fun enjoying this bit of VR entertainment.

Final Thoughts

The other thing my brothers and I did since we were all together was to once again recreate the now famous stairway picture. I was told after the fact that I was standing in the wrong place, but to my credit, I wanted to make sure my other brothers got maximum visibility and exposure. 😁  The last event we shared together was to celebrate my 63rd birthday. As I reminded all of them, I may be getting older, but I’m still the baby of the family and younger than all of them!  Also, I’m not a year older, but rather a year closer to Medicare.

That brings this monthly blog to a close. I’m working on finalizing my travel plans for the spring, and will share those details next month. I’m looking forward to the return of warmer weather so I can do some touristy things around here in Feb. I’ve got people to see and places to visit. Till next time, be well and safe travels.

I only show a sampling of my adventure pictures here in the blog, and do so mostly in collage format for brevity and ease of reading. If you want to view an album containing individual full fidelity and hi-res images of all my travel pictures related to this specific blog, click the image below. Enjoy!